Indian Education System Under Scrutiny: Government Responds to “Deteriorating” Schools Report with Focus on Skill Development

Indian Education System Under Scrutiny: Government Responds to “Deteriorating” Schools Report with Focus on Skill Development

RMN News Report Highlights:

• A new report by Rakesh Raman critically assesses India’s school education as “bad,” “deteriorating,” and “irrelevant” to the job market, citing it as a major cause of youth unemployment.
• The report proposes a “Constructive Education Framework (CEF)” based on “Learning for Earning” to teach hybrid job skills and promote self-learning, aiming to make students “fully employable” after 14 years.
• The Ministry of Education has acknowledged Raman’s report, stating it was circulated for “perusal and appropriate action” and will be “incorporated in policy measures if found suitable”.
• The government emphasizes its existing initiatives under NEP 2020 and Samagra Shiksha, focusing on skill education for students, with a goal for 50% exposure to skill education by 2025 and the establishment of “Skill Hubs”.

A recent scathing report, “School Education Report to Make Students Employable,” authored by researcher and editor Rakesh Raman, has painted a grim picture of India’s current school education system, describing it as “bad,” “deteriorating,” and “so irrelevant that it is not required at all in any job market”.

The report asserts that this educational crisis is largely responsible for the country’s burgeoning unemployment crisis. In response, the Ministry of Education has acknowledged the report, stating it has been circulated for perusal and will be incorporated into policy measures if found suitable, while also highlighting its ongoing efforts to boost employability through existing initiatives.

Raman’s report, an initiative of Raman Media Network (RMN), criticizes both government and private schools for being plagued by obsolete subjects, archaic teaching methods, and a fundamental disconnect with the demands of the modern job market.

Key findings include that school students are taught “obsolete subjects with archaic pedagogical methods,” school books are “written haphazardly,” and the quality of education is “equally bad in government as well as private schools”.

Furthermore, the report claims that teachers are “not fully qualified to teach contemporary subjects,” follow an “ineffective book-to-board approach,” and conduct “unnecessarily multiple exams” without contributing to academic development. State and national education policies are deemed “so flawed that they fail to improve the quality of education”.

The consequences of this “poor quality of education” are severe, according to Raman, leading to higher education becoming “meaningless” and a lack of “linkages with higher education and employment of students”. Alarmingly, the report cites data from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Institute of Human Development (IHD), revealing that India’s youth account for almost 83% of the unemployed workforce, with the share of unemployed youth with secondary or higher education nearly doubling to 65.7% between 2000 and 2022.

The report even notes placement challenges at premier institutions like IIT Delhi. It concludes that after 12 years of schooling, students are “totally confused and not equipped for higher education needed for employment,” and that prevailing subjects like math, science, social science, and obsolete computer applications are not needed by “about 99% of students”.

To address these critical issues, Raman’s report proposes a radical overhaul with an alternative model of school education based on a dynamic Constructive Education Framework (CEF). This framework operates on the principle of “Learning for Earning,” aiming to directly connect education with employability.

The CEF seeks to focus on skills development, teach hybrid job skills required in future markets, and promote self-learning techniques. The proposed structure involves primary education for the first five years, covering foundational subjects like Arithmetic, English, IT, Moral Education, and a local language. Higher education from the 6th to 12th year would be divided into four specialized streams: Humanities, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), Commerce or Trade, and Specialized Domains like AI, Human Rights, and Governance.

The report envisions a total education period of 14 years, including two years of on-the-job training, after which a student would be “fully employable”. This model, if implemented, aims to make college and university education “redundant”. Suggested improvements also include appointing qualified teachers and bureaucrats, implementing Service-Level Agreements for teachers, banning private tuitions, and focusing expenditure on curriculums, qualified teachers, and book content rather than infrastructure.

The Ministry of Education’s Department of School Education & Literacy acknowledged receipt of Rakesh Raman’s “School Education Report to Make Students Employable”. The Department informed Raman that his report had been circulated within the Department for “perusal and appropriate action” and would be “incorporated in policy measures if found suitable”.

The government’s response highlights its existing initiatives aimed at increasing employability. It notes that all measures flow from the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which aims to ensure that by 2025, at least 50% of students in school and higher education gain exposure to skill education.

Currently, about 80% of schools, including government and government-aided ones, already provide skill programs through the Samagra Shiksha initiative, with 40% of secondary students enrolled in skill courses. The Department has also been encouraging State Education Boards to seek recognition as awarding bodies for skill courses from the National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).

Furthermore, the Government of India, in collaboration with the World Bank, has prepared a detailed report titled ‘Jobs at Your Doorstep: A Jobs Diagnostic for Young People in Six States,’ which underscores the need for skill development and employability enhancement, particularly through the integration of vocational education in the school system.

A key focus of this report is strengthening the “Vocationalisation of School Education” (VSE) under Samagra Shiksha, in line with NEP 2020. This includes transforming secondary schools into “Skill Hubs” that offer industry-relevant trades based on local economic contexts to facilitate direct school-to-work transitions. District-specific trade menus tailored to local industry needs are recommended for better alignment and adaptability.

The Ministry of Education concluded that it has been “actively working on promoting skilling of students” to enhance their employability and smoothen school-to-work transitions, aligning with the suggestions made in Raman’s report.

Download Report: You can click here to download and study Raman’s report which is also given below.

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